Mariners Land Nationals Rzepczynski For Two Years

Mariners GM, Jerry Dipoto keeps on making moves. He is now bringing on the Washington Nationals and career journeymen, Marc Rzepczynski to Seattle for two years.

It should be no surprise that Dipoto is drastically shaking up the roster again. In his first year, he made a multitude of moves that completely transformed the M’s organization into a viable playoff contender.

Having filled most of the holes in the lineup on both sides of the ball, Dipoto has still needed to sure up his bullpen with enough left-handed men. A two-year deal that is now finalized will help with just that.

Before any new players were brought on to the Mariners in early November, the M’s twenty-five man roster was losing their southpaws left, and well, left.

Looking at the Mariners roster now, they five left-handers that all arrived or were called up in the last thirty days.

The M’s traded for promising lefty prospects, Zac Curtis and James Pazos, signed Dean Kiekhefer off waivers, called up Paul Fry, and have now signed Marc Rzepczynski to a two-year deal.

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Rzepczynski is a dominating lefty with some seriously good off-speed pitches. His sinker and slider are often unhittable, with such precise movement, players generally hit into ground ball outs when he throws them. That is if they can get a bat on it.

In the seven years that Rzepczynski has been in the league, he has a 3.80 ERA, although last season he was better than average, scoring a 2.64 ERA over seventy games between the Nationals and Oakland Athletics.

Rzepczynski has also played well in the playoffs. Aside from his horrendous first outing back in the 2011 postseason in which he gave up three runs and recorded no outs, his career playoffs ERA is an impressive 2.13 in twenty games over 12.2 innings.

In that 2011 postseason, he was able to able to bounce back from the rocky playoff debut and would shine in the World Series. In four appearances, he struck out four men, while allowing half as many hits and no runs en route to a championship with the St.Louis Cardinals.

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Whether the Mariners can make the postseason this coming year or not is yet to be seen, but Rzepczynski should play an important left-handed role, from April through September regardless if the Mariners continue to play into mid-October.